Difficult Employees: How to Handle or Deal with Them at Work

Almost every chief/manager complains about having at least one difficult employee. Dealing with difficult employees is something that every manager has to face. There is always that one worker who does not perform up to the mark, or is hard to manage, or has issues in coexisting with others, or means well yet simply doesn’t deliver as promised.

Also the terrible thing is that most administrators get held prisoner to these people, spending an awry measure of time, physical and emotional energy on them.

Managing Difficult Employees:

These are 9 things that efficient managers do when confronted with a troublesome employee – things that prevent them from wasting time, money and energy.

1. Give reasonable, behavioral feedback:

Most managers spend months, sometimes even years, grumbling about poor work performance and not actually giving the employee proper feedback about what exactly they should stop doing in order to perform better. Telling the employee on how they are faring is one of the most uncomfortable tasks a manager is supposed to do. Anyhow, good managers figure out how to do to it reasonable well. Guiding a difficult employee get back on the right track can be easily achieved by communicating with them in a nice way and helping them out.

2. Listen:

Usually, when a worker is troublesome, the manager stops paying attention to important aspects and doesn’t know what’s really going on. They get hopeless and disturbed, and form an opinion about the employee – so they simply turn their attention to other things, both out of self-protection and avoidance. However, efficient managers get exceptionally attentive when someone’s not performing up to the mark. They know their absolute best on how to enhance the situation and try to know the difficult employee’s point of view. Listening can help clear the air and sort things out. You may get to hear about some real problem that’s not the worker’s fault that perhaps you can solve; the difficult employee may start behaving differently once he or she feels heard; you may find legitimate problems he or she has, that need to be taken care of.

3. Document:

At whatever point you are having huge issues with a representative, jot down the main points. Very often the managers couldn’t let a troublesome employee go because of the fact that they had no record of his or her terrible conduct. Good managers know that documentation is prudent and essential. But if you can sort out the matter then put the document back in the drawer.

4. Step into the issue:

To avoid problems mounting each step, it is invariably a safer approximation to choose action once an undesirable behaviour is evident. The main aspect is that a difficult employee is not sure about his actions, whether it disturbs others or his co-workers are frustrated by his actions. The key reason is that most employees get on with and some think it’s a kind of job hindrance. In such places, it is the duty of the manager to monitor the matter and resolve it. The manager has to take steps and collect information to make out the issue and take a deep look on the employee and his performance, so that future issues aren’t raised.

5. Be bold with your reactions:

When at times if an employee has not performed well make sure not to get convinced with his work because employees monitor your reactions each time. It is important to have a standard set of reactions towards employees and react accordingly. When the tasks are accomplished you have your own set of reactions in a good manner and when not, then the vice versa. So mark your levels so that dealing difficult employees is accomplished easily.

6. Personally research on the problem:

Equipped with correct information and data, the manager should take the troublemaker into an isolated place -away from co-workers and peacefully address the matter. The manager can receive a good start by investigating if the employee is aware of the issues running in the office. This will open up if he is updated with the problems or not. At times when the difficult employee disagrees with the issues, the manager can make him clear with examples about his conduct. The duty of the handler is to make employee reply to the allegations. If the difficult employee denies in spite of all these steps, an intellectual acceptance can be expected to.

7. Never trash talk about the employee:

When dealing with problematic employees, inefficient managers substitute trash-talking about the bad employee to just about everyone rather than handling the problem smartly. No matter how problematic an employee may be, great managers don’t bad mouth about the workers. It creates an air of back-stabbing and distrust and pollutes co-workers perception of the worker, and ends up making you look highly professional and puny.

8. When everything fails, termination is must:

In the event that the worker keeps on denying his wrong conduct and even refuses to attempt to enhance the circumstances, an end is met with his job by the manager. Usually this includes recording a string of decently authenticated voiced record and after that written criticism about the behaviour. One should strictly follow company’s protocol and should be offered ample time to come up with his behaviour when questioned. With such opportunity when the employee does not yield in better performance, then the employee’s service is subjected to termination.

9. Be brave:

10. Handle it Easy:

Firing an employee is the toughest thing a manager has to do. If it comes to that point, do it quickly. Don’t pull it off, don’t make excuses and don’t ask someone else do it. The best managers handle these tough things in a good way.

No one wishes to work with difficult employees. When dealing with such people, productivity tends to decrease, frustrations rises and morale diminishes. If you follow these ‘great manager’ approaches when you have a troublesome difficult employee, then no matter how it turns out, you’ll end up with the confidence knowing that you’ve done your best in a hard situation.

12 years of Experience within the International BPO/ Operations and Recruitment Areas. Extensive experience in Complete Recruitment Life Cycle - Sourcing, Negotiation and Delivery.
Loves Writing in my Free Time on varied Topics